Joby Babu, COO, Nimbuzz is taking part in a debate ‘Analysing the App Opportunity’ on Day One of the LTE Asia conference, taking place on the 18th-19th September 2013 at the Suntec, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him about his perspectives on the relationship between OTTs and carriers.

Collaborate or compete? From the OTT perspective, what relationship should you have with operators?

The way forward has to be the path of collaboration and partnership. Competing with each other will lead to further cannibalisation of messaging revenues and it will be a lost opportunity to explore newer revenue streams such as virtual economies, gaming etc. Partnerships with the common intent of providing a seamless experience to the end user will be the best option forward and this will help stakeholders maximise their monetisation opportunities.

What are the key challenges of IP based telephony?

IP based telephony has its own challenges based on the geographies under consideration, such as infrastructure maturity, breadth and width of coverage, mode of IP implementation (application vs native calling option on devices), the regulatory environment and its many challenges.

One of the basic integral dependencies of OTT services, including the Nimbuzz service, is a quality data path that connects it to the Internet world. As services are getting richer, in line with user expectations, fat data pipes will help facilitate a seamless service experience.

Do you think VoLTE will be a counter threat to OTT voice?

VoLTE might not be a threat to OTT voice, but will raise its own challenges. Both of them are voice services on IP. But it depends on many parameters in the ecosystem – how VoLTE services are packaged, the evolution of handset ecosystem, the pricing of such handsets and devices, and the evolution of technology itself.

What are you hoping to get out of attending the LTE Asia?

One of the objectives at LTE Asia is to learn about the evolution of LTE ecosystem and to hear it from different stakeholders in that ecosystem. Simultaneously, I would like to share what Nimbuzz and other such services expect from this ecosystem evolution.